Around the World and Back: Seasonal employment is a double-edged sword...

Sorry I haven't posted for so long, again! The main news on my end is that we finally found jobs! The apple tree thinning season was supposed to begin in mid-November, so our plan was to work for almost a full month before traveling down to Wellington for a week. The hitch in our plan came with the delay in the season, and we found ourselves with a lot of downtime. When I last wrote, we were kind of feeling down in the dumps; staying in a hostel in Napier where none of the other backpackers wanted to make friends. There wasn't much to do in town, everything closed early, and we were paying more than we should have been for staying there. After a few days in our rut, we decided to try our luck at WWOOFing again, so we could save some dough while waiting for an orchard to call and say, "We've got two great, high-paying jobs for you!". We emailed 4 or 5 places and heard back from all but one right away, rejecting us. There are a billion backpackers in this region right now, competing for jobs, a free place to stay, rooms in hostels, etc. Dejected, we found a free DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite to stay at, and left town for a night. **Sidenote- the campsite had hotspring pools to soak in and was amazing, if only I hadn't been cursed with a mysterious bout of tummy troubles and unable to enjoy it :(**

When we got back to Napier we felt lost as to what to do next, but we found we had an email from one of the farms and had been accepted for a WWOOFing spot!! That brings us to our current location/home, Hastings. We are staying in a cottage on the property of the Barley family, complete with 10 other WWOOF roommates. Overall, it has been amazing being here. We have free, fast internet, our own room, access to kitchen, shower, all the amenities we need, were able to unpack our car and really make a mess of this room, and find a place to call home for a few weeks. We aren't given food (although we did get to have a bbq with the whole crew and family a week or so ago), but in exchange for a comfy place to stay we're only required to work 12 hours a week. Pretty easy stuff. We've been here for just over two weeks now and I really wish there was a hidden camera somewhere to film this reality-tv-show of a life we have here. There are 3 German girls in the room next door who we've gotten to be good friends with, and the other room packs in 5 Spaniards and 2 Argentinians. Needless to say, the house is a little crazy. And loud. And it's pretttty small. ;)

The family hosting us are tv-worthy themselves. The mom is of an ambiguous age but looks much younger than she must be, is a widower, and is dating a guy who looks to be in his late 70s... the oldest son, Richard, kind of looks after the WWOOFers, and is 35. He's sort of a goofy, aloof older brother who just shakes his head at the shenanigans of his younger siblings. Then there are two kids who live away from home who we haven't met, and another who I'm guessing is 25 or 26 who lives somewhere nearby. Then there's Jack, a 22 year old bee-keeper who seems to run the labor operations of the family's honey-exporting business. George is 15 and always getting into trouble, spending most of his time hanging around the WWOOF guys and doing things 15 year olds shouldn't be doing, while avoiding the ever-feared mother, older brothers, and pesky younger sister, Grace. She is 13 and spends most of her time flitting around the WWOOF guys, bearing her midriff and trying to get the guys to lend her their car to practice on. Seeing the Barleys in action is better than any comedy film I've seen lately; there is a constant source of entertainment for us around here.

The interesting/weird/annoying part of this WWOOF spot is that there isn't much to do, farming-wise at the moment, so we're stuck doing other tasks. On our first working day here we got to spend 6 hours cleaning the "honey-house" which is just the operating facility where they make the honey. When we were told we'd be working in the honey house, images of us in white apiary suits came to mind, and we were so excited to work with bees! WAH WAH. After that we've pretty much just been putting together frames that go inside the boxes that house the bees. String a wire through a wooden frame, tighten it, staple-gun it, repeat. Not so bad to do for 6 hours a week. I am sad we didn't get to do anything with bees though. The German girls got stuck doing cleaning and housework all week so I definitely feel like they got the shorter end of the stick there.

Anyway, back to jobs. So, we went door-to-door at orchards and had no luck; all the Kiwis are home from university for summer vacation and all the backpackers are here for the thinning season, so there's a stiff competition. Fortunately (unfortunately?), the work is really shitty and undesirable, so there is a lot of turn-over in employees! We finally knocked on the right (wrong?) door and were hired as employees of Mr. Apple (seriously, that's the name of the company, I can't believe it) at his Pilos Orchard. It is only a 5 min drive from our house which makes the sting of starting work at 7am a little easier to bear.

So, as long as I whined about wanting and not being able to get a job, I'm not quite convinced working for Mr. Apple is any better than not working. True, we've only worked two days so far, but the work is ridiculously boring and repetitive, and it doesn't help to know we're making less than minimum wage doing it. Basically "thinning" just means taking a bunch of baby apples off the trees to make room for the apples once they're big enough to pick. For the first two days we were paid $13/hr while we "got the hang of things," and starting tomorrow (Monday) we will be contracted, which means we are paid by tree. The trees are various sizes and the average price per tree is about $1.40 or so. We figured that going at the rate we were the last few days we'd make about $6-7/hr... which just won't do. After learning that our German roommates working at the neighboring orchard are: a) doing the same job but being paid a steady $14/hr, b) being told not to be careful to leave the apples' stems in tact while removing them from the trees (which takes at least twice as long), and c) not required to collect all apples in a sack worn on the front of the body, only to be dumped into piles on the ground instead of just letting them drop to the ground as they're collected, I am ready to DEMOLISH those trees tomorrow. No more careful hand, no more leaving the stems in tact, I will rip those trees to shreds if I have to, whatever it takes to make that cash! As Brian says, "you get what you pay for," and if they are paying me a tiny bit per tree, I will match that pay in quality of work. We'll see how long I last at this job, hahaha :)

So there's not too much else to report here; we're getting a bit more into a comfy routine, living life a little more like we did at home, and not doing as many outdoorsy things. I am realllllllly enjoying being unpacked, having a home, and friends around, but I will also be happy when we can resume a backpackers' way of life and get back out into nature. The shenanigans around this cottage can be exhausting but they are making for yet another absolutely unforgettable, yet unconventional WWOOF experience.